This invention relates to a mining method and apparatus, and in particular to a double slot selective mining system,
In conventional gold mining methods, the gold-bearing reef is won from the working face of a stope which has a width great enough to permit personnel access to the working face. The blasting that is used to advance the working face is non-selective in the sense that the reef becomes mixed up with the barren rock. Consequently, a vast quantity of barren rock is recovered and subsequently processed along with the reef in order to recover the valuable mineral content. This leads to a waste of time, money and manpower.
A previously suggested method for selective mining has included the step of cutting a slot with a single wire saw above and below the reef between two pre-developed gulleys extending along either side of the reef. This method suffers the disadvantages of jamming of the wire saw, poor machine utilization and relatively low system efficiency.
The present invention seeks to address these problems.